This fly named after the legendary Catskill fisherman Theodore Gordon is still one of the most well known dry flies around the world. Inspired by the British dry flies of the period the pattern uses the same components but adds a segmented body made from stripped peacock quill and wings from wood duck feathers as is typical with the patterns of the region.
The peacock quill body is living a sort of renaissance period now so it is a perfect time to reflect on the classic patterns with this feature. These are now readily available from fly shops although there are easy methods to do your own if you want to save some money and are using them a lot. Let me know if you’re interested and I will make another post about preparing stripped peacock quills. Quill bodies are quite brittle so I usually reinforce them either by a layer of superglue before wrapping the quill or a light coat of varnish or UV glue after.
There are many minor variations of the pattern depending on the period and tyer but I think this is the most commonly used version.
Quill Gordon
Hook: 10-18 standard dry fly
Tail: Dun hackle fibers
Body: Stripped Peacock quill
Hackle: Dun
Wings: Wood duck
